Page 1 of Glass

1

POPPY

Life is ruled by belief—not truth.

Tasha Jarreau’s dark hair splays across the oak table as she leans close, studying the small loops of my late mother’s cramped cursive. Her handwriting is nearly impossible to decipher, and if I hadn’t spent years forced to read it as she homeschooled my siblings and me, I would probably be leaning in alongside her.

“You’re sure this is authentic?” Tasha asks, glancing up at me with bright blue eyes as she twists in her seat. I’ve known her long enough to be able to tell that she’s letting the excitement of this discovery get the best with her. Maybe I’m finally becoming jaded about my search because I’m struggling to share in her excitement even though I’m the one who summoned her all this way.

I tap the symbol next to my mother’s signature. “Do you see this?”

She leans in closer, her face comically close to the page. I’ve already studied the symbol under a microscope, looking for any error that would make me second-guess its origin.

“Our mother never used that symbol outside of the home,” my brother’s voice intrudes. Paxton places a possessive hand on Tasha’s back. He keeps wandering in and out of the cramped kitchen of my rented cabin.

“The flower in the center is Bittersweet; it’s meant to represent truth.” I always found it ironic that my mother was enamored with the pointed-tip flowers. Her version of truth was bittersweet, indeed.

Tasha scoffs, her thoughts probably wandering in the same direction as mine.

“Don’t you think that insignia means this letter was meant to go to one of us?” I meet Paxton’s eyes but try to keep my expression passive. I worry about what this new discovery means for our family.

Paxton rubs his hand over the trimmed beard across his jawline as his dark eyes scan my face. “If you’re right, it would mean our parents thought one of us would be amenable to hearing from them. You’re practically accusing at least one of our siblings of being a traitor.” His tone turns so accusatory an ache builds deep in my chest at the sound of it.

“That’s not what I’m saying, Paxton.” But I might be thinking it just a little.

“Calm down,” Tasha whispers to him in a velvety, soothing voice. She has an uncanny knack for calming the beast. Paxton once brought great fighters to their knees, and now she brings him to his. It would be more amusing if I wasn’t the reason he’s all worked up in the first place.

Tasha’s phone rings, and a soft smile spreads over her face as she glances at the screen. “It’s Tess; can we take a break for a few minutes so I can talk to her?”

“Of course.” All I want is to find my missing siblings, I would never deny her a single moment with hers.

She radiates happiness as she answers her sister’s call, pushing out of her seat with a glowing face as she laughs at something Tess says. Paxton and I are silent as she wanders out of the kitchen toward the front door. We’re quiet enough to hear the click as she steps outside.

“Our family has only just started rebuilding old bonds,” Paxton growls at me, turning his attention back to me. “If you start accusing one of us of being in contact with our parents, it will only separate us again.”

“I didn’t accuse anyone of being in contact with them. We don’t know if the letter was ever sent, Paxton.”

He puts a hand up for me to stop talking. I grit my teeth hard to keep from snapping at him. Paxton is an asshole to a lot of people, but I’m not usually one of them. If he really has something to say, he should spit it out.

I’m not a monster, and he shouldn’t look at me like one.

“It’s been a hard damn year for us, Poppy. Why can’t you put this on the backburner and let all of us heal? You’re inviting trouble by salting old wounds, don’t you see that? You need to think about what all of this is doing to the family when we’re already vulnerable.” His voice drops low with exasperation. It’s not the first time he’s asked me to stop my dead-end search in the past months, but it sends a wave of guilt through me anyway. Everyone but me–despite their support at first–is getting tired of this search.

I don’t want to hurt Paxton. I don’t want to hurt our other brothers and sisters, either. But… “The kids I’m trying to findarefamily. Maybe they didn’t grow up with us, but they’re our blood. Don’t you feel any duty to them?”

He looks away, staring at the kitchen cabinets as if they’ll tell him what to say.

“I know I’m making everyone uncomfortable by opening old wounds, but I can’t live my life as if there are only eleven of us left to worry about. If our parents really had five more kids–and this letter seems to confirm that rumor–they shouldn’t be punished for our parents’ sins any more than the rest of us.” The sound of my own breathless desperation meets my ears, but I can’t rein my emotions in. Not about this.

Paxton heaves a pained sigh and drops into Tasha’s abandoned seat. “You really won’t give up this search?”

“Never,” I vow.

He shakes his head at me as he picks up my mother’s letter and scans the vague message. In it, she writes–presumably to one of us kids–that she trusts the recipient to care for five pups that are dear to her heart. She says that the pups will arrive shortly after she receives confirmation that the recipient is able to take them in.

For years, rumors have swirled that the infamous parents of the Glass family cult ran away and had five additional children before finally being killed when they refused to turn themselves into the Sovereign Pack, the rule-keepers of our people. I grew up as one among the original thirteen. There are eleven of us now, two of my brothers having passed, and only this year were we all finally brought together again for the sake of helping Paxton and his mate’s family.

Breaking our family’s renewed bond isn’t my intention. I’m trying to strengthen our family by making it complete.

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